REVIEWS

A funny and empathetic reminder of summer camp

Not A Happy Camper: A Memoir by: Mindy Schneider Grove Press, 2007 ISBN 13: 978-0802118486 256 pages

This is a great book for both adults and teens, with abundant humor. For adults, this book will prompt ample memories of the difficulty inherent in the teen years.

Not a Happy Camper chronicles Mindy Schneider’s summer camp experience at Camp Kin-A-Hurra in a playful and fun narrative. After two years at camps of her Jewish parents’ choice, the young camp enthusiast convinces her parents to allow her to go to one she prefers: Camp Kin-A-Harra, with its promise of a lush setting and always-sunny days. Saul, the owner, does a magical selling job on Mindy and her parents. Unfortunately, the campers soon find out the camp of their dreams more closely resembles a run-down dump, with food provided courtesy of de-railed trains throughout the summer, and cereal as old as the camp (40 years), non-functioning bathrooms, and leaking cabins. Despite the decrepitude of their meager and pathetic surroundings, they manage to create enduring memories with the fun they manifest on their own. The highlight: waiting for that first kiss from the boys across the lake.

Various personalities and lifestyles unite as the girls struggle to make the best of a dismal, wet summer camp. They survive drives in a truck almost chokes them with carbon monoxide poisoning, canoeing trips across a rock-strewn lake to make secret trips to check out the boys, treacherous hikes and close calls in getting lost. The tales go on and on while this group of eccentric girls and boys learn life lessons that engrave themselves permanently into their memories.

The bittersweet awkwardness of being a teen mixed with a sense of magical discovery is written, paradoxically, with both humor and seriousness. Although I was never sent to camp myself, it was very easy to relate to the woes and worries of those angst-filled teen years. As my daughter approaches those years herself, it is refreshing for me to remember how difficult adolescence can be. This book encourages compassion for teen daughters and their friends as they endure the inevitable, dreaded, years between 12 and 18.